Adjust Alert Light Bulb Color - LawsonGuru.com

Name	Points
Greg Moeller	4184
David Williams	3349
JonA	3288
Kat V	2984
Woozy	1973
Jimmy Chiu	1883
Kwane McNeal	1437
Ragu Raghavan	1348
Roger French	1311
mark.cook	1244

kflores01

Veteran Member

Posts: 43

9/3/2008 4:43 PM

In Lawson's Framework Services User and Administration guide (page 15) there is a display of a dashboard with alerts on the left hand side. Two of the alerts are red and one yellow. With the obvious intent, that the red alerts need immediate review. Similarly, I am interested in changing the color of a bulb from a default neutral (status_n_bulb.gif in the Status Icon field) to either green or red should the results from an alert are greater or less than particular thresholds within the alerts. This would allow a user to know if there is relevant information within an alert without them having to open the link. Even though Lawson makes reference to server-side processing, I can not find actual step by step instructions in the manuals. If someone has performed this type of visual cue, please contact me at flores@cshl.edu.

Matthew Nye

Veteran Member

Posts: 514

9/3/2008 5:39 PM

Server side programming is very broad. That is probably why they dont give instructions. What Ive done in the past is a number of things:

1. Write a custom program that checks the data related to the dashboard item and based on the results change a predefined image. The location stays the same but the program changes the image.
2. This is the most unstable as it relies on the Framework Services ERD to not change. Using a Store Procedure to monitor the data and based on the results update the associated Framework Services table and record related to the content link to change the location of the image accordingly.

This is all high level but, again, thats because its such a broad and custom topic to each installation.

hth
matt

kflores01

Veteran Member

Posts: 43

9/3/2008 7:01 PM

Not to mention duplication of effort. Use their Notification and then recreate the query to change the traffic light. What type of custom program did you use to check the data?

Matthew Nye

Veteran Member

Posts: 514

9/3/2008 7:14 PM

This is where the "server-side" programming comes into play. You could do a compiled JAVA or .Net program or a ASP.Net or J2EE application to handle this as well.

The SmartNotes approach is redundant but avoids the need for the server-side programming skill sets. The solution should be tailored to your internal resources I think.

kflores01

Veteran Member

Posts: 43

9/3/2008 7:23 PM

It is shame Lawson was so short sighted. A simple relationship between the GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS flag, under the Save section of the Notifcation Wizard, could have made Smart Notes more powerful.

Matthew Nye

Veteran Member

Posts: 514

9/3/2008 9:50 PM

You can actually do this type of stop lighting in SmartNotifications. We do this all the time. Frameworks Services dashboards arent like other vendors dashboard, as in it isnt a data mining tool. Its really more of a traditional portal (a la IBM WebSphere Portal or Micrsoft Sharepoint). You embed your reporting and analytics within the dashboard from the peripheral apps but no data monitoring or business logic is handled with in it.

kflores01

Veteran Member

Posts: 43

9/4/2008 10:52 AM

Could you send along and example? I know how to change color of bulb within the SmartNote so the resulting query has different colors based on thresholds. However, what I cannot do is change the color of the bulb on the dashboard link within a dashboard module under certain condition. Ideally that condition would be if data is retrieved or not.